Every day, people turn to the World Wide Web (also referred to as the “Web”) for information about a wide range of topics. Due to the vast size of the Web, users typically use search-engines to find desired web pages on the Web.
While viewing a web page, a user may require more information about a topic mentioned in the web page. To get that information, the user traditionally opens a search-engine page, types in a search term manually, and initiates the search by pressing enter or clicking on an icon. This can be inconvenient for the user, as it requires navigation to the search-engine page, typing in the search term, and possibly opening a new window. Furthermore, this search process diverts the user's attention to another page. The user may not return to the original web page, thus depriving the web page provider of potential page visits and advertisement impressions or click-throughs. Additionally, the user may not know the best search term(s) to use for finding additional information about the topic.
More recently, some web sites and applications have started including search boxes on their web pages or in the graphical user interfaces of their applications. These search boxes allow a user to search the Web without first opening a new window or navigating to a search-engine page. However, these web sites and applications still require manually typing the search term into the search boxes.